I remember how it was -- JR
Sydney teacher found to have racially vilified Indian student
This report rather grieves me. I have been to India 3 times and have always admired Indian people for their patience and good nature amid adversity. And a very important person in my life at the moment is of wholly Indian descent. I admire her greatly. See her below:
The Department of Education has been ordered to make an official apology to a former Cronulla High School student after a teacher allegedly described Indian people as “Uber drivers and Deliveroo people” during a Year 12 business studies class.
The teacher – James Anderson – played an educational YouTube video for the class entitled Elements Of Marketing which featured a presenter of Indian descent.
During the video, Anderson is alleged to have mocked the presenter before saying “all Indians are Uber drivers and Deliveroo people, and their service is bad”.
The incident, which happened on March 3, 2021, was complained about by a student who was of Indian descent.
The student and her parents met with the principal following the incident, but filed a complaint with NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal after being unsatisfied with the school’s response.
“As the video was playing, I saw Mr Anderson, while smiling, glance at me a few times and continue to mockingly giggle at the lady and her accent,” the student said during her evidence at the tribunal.
“During the playing of the video which ran for over twenty minutes, I recall a girl in the class asking for the video to be turned off a few times ... but Mr Anderson did not do so.
“I was distressed and uncomfortable that Mr Anderson was looking at me during the video and mocked the Indian presenter, knowing that I am of Indian race. It was embarrassing and hurtful.”
During his evidence, Anderson denied mocking the presenter, but admitted he said something to the effect of: “Don’t assume because she is Indian that she is an Uber driver or works at 7-Eleven”, before complaining about the quality of service provided by Uber and food delivery providers.
He admitted his statements were “inappropriate” and “racial in nature”.
“At the time there was nothing in the nature of any reactions by the students in the class that day to cause me to think that one or more of the students was upset,” he told the tribunal.
On Tuesday, the Tribunal handed down its decision finding the student’s complaint of racial vilification substantiated.
The Tribunal ordered the Department of Education – the first respondent in the case – to issue the student with a written apology which acknowledged the Tribunal’s findings of racial vilification and the harm caused to her.
The teacher remains at the school but received a disciplinary warning and training.
In a statement provided to the Herald, a spokesman for the Department of Education commended other students in the class who spoke up during the incident.
“We reject all forms of racism and are committed to the elimination of racial discrimination in NSW public schools,” he said.
“The matter was reported to the Professional and Ethical Standards Directorate in 2021 and appropriate action was taken.”
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A Back-to-School Warning
Parents of children going back to school — be warned! Your kids will continue to learn Marxist theories, hyper-sexualization, anti-American propaganda, social justice advocacy, and that capitalism and America are racist. They will be taught to hate themselves, others, and their country.
You would think that with all the legislation passed around the country to curtail these insidious pedagogies, parents could be more assured that teachers would get back to academics. Unfortunately, there is an abundance of evidence that teachers and administrators are admitting they will continue to indoctrinate children by finding ways to get around the new laws.
In fact, when the battle over critical race theory emerged two years ago, over 5000 teachers across the country signed a pledge initiated by the Zinn Education Project saying, “We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events — regardless of the law.” Accompanying The Zinn Education Project pledge is a statement that reads, “The major institutions and systems of our country are deeply infected with anti-Blackness and its intersection with other forms of oppression. To not acknowledge this and help students understand the roots of U.S. racism is to deceive them.” The Zinn Education Project provides training and materials to schools based on the approach to history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s controversial book A People’s History of the United States. In 2019, Dr. Mary Grabar published a book titled Debunking Howard Zinn wherein she identifies Zinn as a communist and provides evidence to expose the lies in his rewrite of American history.
Another example of school officials evading the law is found in a South Carolina law prohibiting the use of State funds to teach tenets of critical race theory. Many South Carolina school districts skirted the law by using federal COVID relief money to continue implementing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Social Emotional Learning, which are all conduits for Marxist critical theories.
Other tried and true ways to equivocate the law are also being implemented. Just as nearly every state in the nation rebranded their Common Core standards a decade ago to sidestep push-back from lawmakers and parents, an Idaho principal and district instructional coach said they would merely rebrand Social Emotional Learning as “behavior adaptations,” and “mental health curriculum.”
Moreover, many districts around the country are doubling down on grooming children into believing they are a gender contrary to their biological sex. Fargo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Rupak Gandhi brazenly said he will not “openly out any student because of one law.” It appears school officials will not only continue to influence children to reconsider their biological sex, but they will continue to do it behind the backs of parents.
There is a ray of hope in California’s Chino Valley Unified School District where parents recently applauded the removal of California School Superintendent Tony Thurmond from its school board meeting. Thurmond spoke in opposition to a proposed local school district policy “to require teachers to notify parents of students that identify as transgender.” Even in very liberal California, parents object to indoctrination and local districts are stepping up to regain control of their classrooms despite pressure from State government to push their anti-parent policies.
Parents, as well as every freedom-loving American, need to be aware of what is happening in government schools with their tax dollars. Parents should start by watching the groundbreaking documentary Truth & Lies in American Education to become fully informed of the array of dangerous philosophies children are taught. Then they can connect with others in their community to fight this battle for the minds of children. It ultimately is a battle of good versus evil.
A parents’ first line of defense should be to protect their children. The toxic agenda in government schools is tantamount to child abuse. Once children are safe, we must work together to protect our countries’ freedom. If we don’t stop the indoctrination of children, we will lose our very freedom. As Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the school room for one generation is the philosophy of the government of the next.”
https://townhall.com/columnists/sherifew/2023/07/30/a-back-to-school-warning-n2626343
****************************************************Proficiency in Math and Reading in Middle-School Students Continues to Drop, National Test Results Show
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, some worry the accelerated academic decline it seems to have started is only getting worse.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test for the 2022–23 school year indicates that 13-year-olds are poorer at reading and mathematics than during the 2019–20 school year.
The average reading score fell from 260 points to 256 points out of a possible 500. That meant the average dropped from a score of 52 percent to 51.2 percent.
The average math score went from 280 to 271. That means it declined from a score of 56 percent on the test to an average score of 54.2 percent, an NAEP analysis of test results shows.
These falls wipe out decades of educational improvement, putting reading scores one point above 1971 scores of 255 points and math scores five points above 1971's scores of 266, according to the survey.
Matthew Lynch, founder of The Edvocate, told The Epoch Times that the pandemic likely caused these decreased scores. The Edvocate calls for change in education policies in the hopes of improving quality.
"For many students, they were not exposed to quality curriculum and instruction" during the pandemic when schools mostly were closed, Mr. Lynch said. "Most of the education that they received was via distance learning."
And that was largely ineffective, he added.
Though scores have fallen faster since the pandemic began, educational scores have slowly been dropping since 2012, national test scores show.
"The 'green shoots' of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized, as we continue to see worrisome signs about student achievement and well-being more than two years after most students returned for in-person learning," said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Educational Statistics, in a written statement.
This decline probably is a result of the widespread use of Common Core curriculum implemented in 2010, said Alex Nester, political director for Parents Defending Education.
Common Core is a set of education standards developed in 2010 by the National Governors Association. The federal government encouraged states to adopt the standards by offering grants.
Common Core has been largely unpopular among parents, many of whom claim it dumbs down standards, uses a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching, and gives the federal government too much power over instruction.
Originally, 45 states adopted Common Core standards. Four since have abandoned them.
"I remember going to school and learning we had to know our math facts," Ms. Nester told The Epoch Times. "You would do the flashcards, and you just had to—from sight—know those facts."
But Common Core emphasizes a "skill-set focus" that doesn't encourage the memorization of facts, she said.
This new emphasis has resulted in students learning less, Ms. Nester said.
In addition, increasing a classroom focus on radical gender ideology and racial issues in schools has taken time away from math and reading instruction, Ms. Nester said.
"You either spend that time in the classroom learning, or you don't," she said.
Students will only get back on track if the billions of dollars schools receive go toward good education programs, Ms. Nester said.
Student Slump
The decline in test scores hit all students, but it hit struggling students hardest, the survey results show.
Those in the Top 10 percentile saw average declines of three points in reading and seven points in math on the test.
Students scoring in the lowest 10 percent lost an average of seven points in reading and 15 in math.
"It's no coincidence that the lower-performing students tended to do the worst [during distance learning] because they needed the most help," Mr. Lynch said. "They're the ones that benefit the most from structured curriculum and instruction."
Boys and girls of all races and in all regions experienced some decline in reading and math scores, the study shows.
The least-impacted region was the South, with only a two-point drop in reading and a seven-point drop in math on the tests since 2020.
More Education Dollars
At the same time, funding for public schools has increased.
In 2019, America spent an average of $13,187 on education per public school child, according to the latest U.S. Census figures. Some areas of the country spent far less on each student, others spent far more.
Teacher salaries, benefits, and other daily expenses made up 86 percent of the expenditure, Census figures show.
But little of this money likely goes to increasing teacher salaries, Mr. Lynch said.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised $800 million in teacher raises. This amount will raise the starting salary for teachers by $7,000.
Although some other states have given teachers raises, the average teacher has received only a little more pay than they have in the past, Mr. Lynch said.
"I don't see it reflecting in salaries for teachers," he said.
In the 2021-2022 school year, teachers brought home $2,179 less yearly than they did a decade ago, considering adjustments for inflation, according to the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union.
Low teacher salaries, technically in decline due to inflation, make it difficult to attract talent to the profession, Mr. Lynch said.
Because of a shortage of math teachers, he said, "it is extremely hard for a lot of districts to even find quality math teachers."
Good Teachers Mean Good Schools
At the same time, teaching standards have eroded to the point that many people see school as a "babysitting service," Mr. Lynch said.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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